Tainted
by mrs-langd0n
Summary: AU. The Harmons take Tate in as a foster child. Will he destroy Violet's life or make it more exciting than she ever thought possible?
1. Prologue

**A/N: Hey everyone! I really have to apologize on my long break from New Girl! I'm actually working on the update, but I've just had horrible writer's block lately. I've really been wanting to start a new story though, and this came to my mind. I'll just warn you all now, I really like writing Dark Tate, therefore, in future chapters there will be some dark themes. The first couple will be timid, however. Thanks to all who read and review my stories & I promise I'm going to get the update for New Girl up as soon as possible. I hope you all enjoy this new story. :)**

**/**

The small golden-haired girl sat anxiously on the couch in the living room of her home. Her large, round eyes watched as her parents paced around the living room and kitchen, feeling just as impatient as she was. The pair had smiles on their faces; they were thrilled about today. Violet, on the other hand, was feeling uncertain. The twelve-year-old's hands fumbled around in her lap nervously. She had been an only child up until today. Her parents were taking in a foster child. After her mother's miscarriage last year, even little Violet knew that her parents were feeling unfulfilled. They loved Violet dearly, but they had always wanted another child, and after fair warnings from Vivien's doctor that it was extremely unlikely that she would ever be pregnant again, they decided they wanted to bring a child that needed a good family into their home.

Violet was pulled from her thoughts when she felt the couch sink slightly next to her under the weight of her mother. Vivien reached up and ran her palm gently along Violet's hair, a smile lighting up her face. "It's going to be like having a big brother," Vivien told Violet reassuringly. Violet's face was expressionless, but she forced a small smile for her mother; she knew that this was going to make her parents happy, and she believed they deserved it after what they had gone through.

There was a nearly audible intake of breaths in the room at the sound of the doorbell ringing. Violet watched her mother's eyes dart across the room to meet Ben's and they both smiled at each other and then Violet. Vivien stood up from the couch and moved over to Ben before they quickly made their way to the front door, opening it with huge smiles on their faces. Violet stood up silently, moving so that she could see everyone in the foyer but she remained behind the wall slightly so they wouldn't notice her right away.

She watched as her parents moved back from the door, allowing a social worker inside, followed closely by a boy. She squinted her eyes slightly to get a better look at him. He looked a little older than she, mostly by his height. Her eyes moved to the adults, seeing them exchanging words and greeting the young boy. They had met him only a couple times before this, and they told Violet that he was sweet but very quiet and they hoped she would get along well with him. Violet fit the same description, so she thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

Her eyes fell to the boy whose head was covered in a mess of blonde curls. She bit her lip in concentration, watching his facial expressions as he talked to her parents. He had a smile that would light up any room and it was emphasized by his dimples. After a moment, her parents continued talking to the social worker and the boy began looking around the house. It was only a short minute before his eyes found Violet's gaze, and she felt her breath hitch when she realized she had been caught. From where she stood, his eyes appeared intensely dark, but had a certain light in them. He sent her a goofy smile, and she moved back around the wall a bit more. Her cheeks tinted pink from embarrassment.

"Violet?" she heard her mother's voice from a few feet away and she sighed quietly, her head tilting up when her mother peered around the corner. "Come on," Vivien smiled, grabbing her daughter's hand and tugging her gently along. Violet kept her eyes on the ground as they got closer to the boy. "Violet, this is Tate. He's going to be staying with us for a while," Ben introduced the two. Violet finally lifted her gaze to the boy, and his eyes were even darker up close.

"Hi," Tate spoke first, sending her the same goofy smile. He reached out a hand, gesturing for her to shake it. She bit her lip, contemplating for a moment before placing her tiny hand in his. His grasp was warm. "Hi," she returned quietly, dropping her gaze and her hand after a moment. She remained at her mother's side as she exchanged a few final words with the social worker before she left, leaving Tate standing there with a bag over his shoulder.

"Tate, come on, I'll show you to your room," Ben exclaimed gleefully, gesturing for the boy to follow him. The two males left the room. Vivien knelt down and touched Violet's face gently. "He seems nice, doesn't he? Aren't you excited?" Vivien asked hopefully. Violet just nodded a few times and Vivien kissed her cheek. "How old is he?" Violet asked timidly, crossing her arms loosely over her middle. "He just turned fifteen," Vivien told her. "Wanna help me get dinner started?" she continued, and Violet smiled a bit, nodding quickly. The two made their way into the kitchen to begin preparing something for everyone to eat.

"I hope this is alright for you," Ben told Tate as they entered the bedroom at the end of the hallway. It already held many of Tate's things and was arranged for him. Ben and Vivien had put a lot of care and thought into it, hoping it would make him feel at home. "It's really nice," Tate told him, sliding his bag off of his arm and placing it next to some of his other things. He was only around half a foot shorter than Ben, even at this age. Tate sent him a smile. Ben returned it and released a breath. "Well, I think Vivien and Violet were starting dinner. I'm going to see if they need any help. Make yourself at home, Tate. Come down whenever you're ready," Ben spoke as he took a few steps towards the door. "Thanks," Tate nodded.

Tate wasn't exactly sure how to feel about this whole situation. The Harmons seemed very friendly and welcoming, which was something he was extremely unfamiliar with. His previous family, his birth mother, was the complete opposite of those descriptions, and he honestly wasn't sure how he would handle it. He had dealt with the verbal, and on certain occasions, physical abuse at his original home, and he had already been shaped into the person he was. He knelt onto the floor and pulled out a notebook that was badly damaged. He flipped it open to a random blank page and dug around for a pencil. He turned the notebook sideways and scribbled a word across it: _Taint._

It was the only word that could come to his mind at this moment. He was tainted, and he was sure it was all he would do to the Harmon family.


	2. Intrigue

**Two days later.**

"Violet, honey, why don't you go see if Tate needs any help unpacking his things? He's been up there all day," Vivien spoke, sending Violet a smile. Violet bit her lip and shrugged slightly. Her mother's eyes remained on her, and she knew she wasn't getting out of this. She sighed softly and stood up from the chair. "Okay," she replied, slowly dragging her feet as she exited the kitchen.

Her feet felt heavy as she climbed the stairs of her home. She and Tate had barely spoken since he moved in. He seemed different. Violet couldn't really put her finger on it, but she wanted to figure it out. She passed her parents bedroom and then her own before she found herself outside of Tate's room. The door was shut. She placed her ear against the door but all she heard was silence. She sighed lightly before tapping her knuckles gently against the wood. It was a few seconds before she watched the knob turn and the door opened, bringing her face to face with Tate.

"Hey," he greeted her, his expression blank. She was speechless for a moment. She swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking. "Do you... need any help unpacking or anything?" she mumbled, casting her eyes down to the floor. Violet didn't know why she had difficulty talking to him. She definitely wasn't a socialite or anything of the sort, but she never found it hard to communicate with people when she actually did talk to them. She could practically feel his smile linger in the air.

"I don't really need any help, but you can come in," he opened the door a bit more before taking a few steps back. She lifted her gaze to see that he was folding some clothes sloppily and throwing them into his dresser. Her eyes fell to the line that divided the hallway and his bedroom, and she took a long breath before crossing over it, taking a few steps inside. She had been in this room a million times in the past, but now that it belonged to him it felt so private.

"Are you scared?" he chuckled, stopping his movements for a moment to look at her. Her eyes flew up to meet his, and the question made her a bit angry. "No," she said softly, taking a few more steps inside, trying to prove her point. She crossed her arms, holding her elbows in her palms and glancing around. The walls were still plain, but it was definitely beginning to look like a boys room with some of his belongings scattered around. She moved over to a chair that sat in the corner and took a seat in it, resting her hands in her lap.

He went back to what he had been doing previously. She watched him intently for a few moments. He seemed older than fifteen. She was often told that she acted much older than her own age as well. She bit her lip for a second before licking the spot where the teeth marks indented as she thought for a moment.

"How'd you end up in foster care?" she had been curious about this ever since she found out that he would be staying with them. Her parents refused to tell her for 'privacy reasons'. It annoyed her and she was dying to know. He glanced over at her from the corner of his eye before dropping a pair of jeans onto his bed and running his hand through his hair.

"My mother is unfit to be a parent," he repeated what he had heard the social workers telling the Harmons. Violet raised a curious brow and he turned to face her. He wasn't going to try to hide what happened from Violet, he knew that he was going to be staying with the Harmons for a while and she would find out sooner or later. "Abuse. Verbal, physical. My mom was a drunk." he finally spat out the reasons. Violet bit her lip. Sometimes she forgot how lucky she really was to have parents that gave a shit.

"I'm so sorry," she told him, breaking their eye contact. She felt horrible for this boy. She hardly knew him, but he seemed decent, and she didn't think anyone deserved that.

He shrugged at her sympathy and continued folding his clothes. Over the years, his emotions had gone numb. It was hard for him to feel much of anything anymore. "I'm over it," he mumbled, pushing one of the full drawers shut. Violet scoffed quietly. She didn't really see how he could just be 'over it', but then again she didn't know what it was like to be in that situation. Most of the time she was pretty numb to things too, but for some reason all her nerves were tingling around Tate. She just felt... on edge.

"How old are you?" Tate questioned, and she almost laughed. It was the first thing she had asked about him, too. "I'm turning thirteen next month." she answered him. They had a two year age difference, but in a lot of ways it seemed as though they were on the same level. Tate nodded slightly. He took a seat on his bed, scooting back a bit to lay down. He placed one of his forearms behind his head and stared up at the ceiling. Violet scanned over his resting frame. She wondered about the abuse he endured; if he had any scars. All of his skin was covered besides his face, neck, and hands. Violet squinted her eyes in thought for a moment.

"You're staring," his voice was low as he spoke, not even turning his head. Violet's face tinted a light shade of pink, but she kept her eyes on his face. "What do you wanna know?" he began, a small smile tugged at the sides of his lips. "How bad was it? Do I have scars?" he turned on his side to face her before sitting up on the side of the bed closer to her. Her eyes widened at his statements. It made her feel a bit uneasy how he seemed to know what she was thinking, but it was intriguing all the same.

"Do you want to see?" his voice was quiet now, and Violet's heart felt heavy in her chest when her eyes met his dark ones.

"Violet! Tate! Come down here, please," The sound of Ben's voice broke their much too serious moment. Violet blinked a few times before quickly standing up out of the chair and taking a few steps closer to the door, walking near Tate in the process.

"Next time," his whisper danced through her ears, and she inhaled a sharp breath at the sound, quickly exiting his room, feeling him trail behind her.

**/**

**A/N: So far I am having a lot of fun with this story! The chapters will get longer soon. I just wanted to let you all know a couple things: first of all, I tend to write in third person omniscient. I noticed that I usually tend to lean towards Violet, though. I'm working on that, because writing for Tate is so much fun too! That's why I'd just rather stay omniscient than third person limited. Also, as for the time frame of this story... I'm not really sure! I can't decide if it's more in the present or during the 90s, so whichever you feel it is, just go with it. I think it could go either way. FINALLY, I wanted to make it clear that Tate and the Harmons do NOT live in the Murder House at this time. You never know what may happen later, though. ;D Thanks to all of you that take the time to review, you make my day!**


	3. Thirteen

**One month later.**

Violet's eyes fluttered open to the sound of hushed voices around her. When she remembered what was going on, she quickly snapped her lids shut again and rolled her eyes behind them. Her parents did this every year, and she wondered when they would finally decide that she was too old for it. _'Probably never,'_ she thought to herself, releasing a quiet sigh. She shifted slightly under the warmth of her blankets before finally exhaling a breath of defeat, her eyes slowly opening again.

Immediately she found her parents faces hovering next to her, huge smiles pulling their cheeks up.

"Happy birthday Violet!" They shouted, much too loudly for Violet's tired ears. She winced momentarily, but when she looked at their happy faces again, she couldn't help but let a small smile make its way onto her face. They both leaned down and kissed her forehead before speaking again. "Hurry up and get ready, Vi," her mother urged her before the pair exited her room.

Violet pushed the covers off of herself and moved to sit up on the edge of her bed. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes for a moment, before removing her hands, casting her eyes to the floor when her vision was still a bit blurry. Eventually, she lifted her gaze, gasping slightly when she saw a figure standing in her doorway.

"Tate?" she asked timidly, quickly reaching up and attempting to tame the mess that she knew was atop her head. She heard him chuckle softly, and she watched his feet take a few steps into her room. She dropped her hand, knowing it was a lost cause trying to fix her hair so quickly. Violet met Tate's gaze for only an instant before dropping her eyes to his chest when his eyes became too prying.

Tate was barely a foot away from her now, and she hated the way her heart pounded in her chest at their close proximity.

A few weeks after Tate moved in, her parents had taken him grocery shopping so they could get an idea of the food he liked. While they were gone, Violet had done some serious snooping in an attempt to find out _anything_ about Tate. Her parents still refused to tell her anything, and she didn't know how to just outwardly ask Tate all the things she wanted to know about him.

Over the past month, Tate and Violet had had a few lengthy conversations about their lives. Violet was always left wanting to know more, however. Always felt like he was leaving something out. Besides that, they had actually been getting along pretty well. Violet never usually took a liking to people so quickly, but Tate was making it happen.

While she had been snooping that day, she discovered a file that held several papers about Tate. Most of them were just talking about foster care and really had nothing to do with his past or personality specifically. After scanning over what felt like a million pages, her eyes finally landed on something that seemed mildly interesting. She read over the paper carefully, her eyes widening at what she discovered.

She scanned over one word several times, not really comprehending it at first but then quickly realizing how much sense it actually made.

_Schizophrenia._

It was almost like a slap in the face, because now that the words were in front of her, it seemed so obvious. The paper told her that he only suffered from a mild case of it, and he had been prescribed a medication before he moved in with her family. She now began to realize that he had definitely shown signs of the disorder, and she must have been blind not to notice.

She thought back to a few of the conversations that they had over the past month, and remembered how she would have to ask him to repeat himself because his speech was so disorganized that she couldn't understand him. The main thing she could also recall was that there had been several occurrences where he would stop talking altogether and he would look around the room as if he had seen a ghost. Violet should have known better than to believe his obvious excuse, "I thought I saw something," and he would always change the subject with one of his brightest smiles that Violet could never say no to.

She had almost laughed at herself that day. Of course, that's why they placed Tate with her family. Her father was a psychiatrist, it only made sense. That explained why Violet knew so much about this disorder, she spent many days reading through her father's books.

Violet was abruptly torn from her thoughts when Tate sat down on her bed next to her, and she almost flew through the roof.

"Woah, calm down, Violet," he chuckled, placing his hand on her knee in a soothing movement. She inhaled a shaky breath and looked at him, a nervous laugh tumbling from her lips. "Sorry," she sighed, looking down at where his hand was and biting her lip.

"Happy birthday," he mumbled softly, tilting his head as he looked at her. She stared at him for a moment, feeling smothered by his gaze. She moved to stand up but he moved his hand to her arm, holding her there. "Wait," he murmured, his other hand moving into his lap, holding a small box. "I got you a present,"

Violet's brows knitted together in confusion. A present? She never expected such a gesture from him, especially after only knowing each other a month. She sighed softly and sat back down, letting her eyes rest on the small box, not being able to handle his stare. He watched her for a moment before reaching it towards her. "Open it," he nodded, a half smile gracing his features. She kept her gaze away from his as she took the box out of his hand, bringing it into her lap.

She could feel his eyes on her still, and she bit her lip as she shifted the box a bit in her hands before pulling the top of it off, her jaw dropping slightly at what was inside. She gently pulled it out of the box, resting it in her palm. It was a silver charm bracelet, one charm already dangling from it. The number '13'. Violet was speechless, she couldn't believe that he had got her a present, let alone something so beautiful.

"Hope you like it," he spoke softly, and she looked over at him, trying to come up with something to say. He chuckled at her blank stare and reached over, wrapping his hand around her arm and taking the bracelet from her hand. He pulled her arm slightly closer to him before clasping the bracelet around her small wrist, holding the charm between his thumb and index finger for a moment. His eyes slowly trailed back up to her face. "Lucky number thirteen,"

Although Tate was much better at hiding his emotions than Violet, his mind was jumbled in this moment, just as much as hers. Since he had been living with the Harmons, he had told Violet more about himself than he had probably told anyone he'd known in his life. He felt like he could trust her, and that she didn't judge him for the problems he had. He knew that she had discovered his file that was hidden away, not because she told him, but because he knew she was smart and would figure it all out eventually.

He was getting confused by his own thoughts, sometimes they were too perplexing for even him to try and decode. He sent Violet a mischievous smile, his arm still in her grasp. He wanted to thank Violet for silently accepting him the way he was. But he supposed he could do the same as she, and just remain silent about it, at least for the time being.

"Happy birthday, Violet," he whispered, moving her arm closer to his face before kissing the back of her hand. He placed her arm back in her lap and smirked at her before standing up.

Violet's eyes looked similar to dinner plates. The skin stretched over the back of her hand was tingling from his lips, and she covered it with her other hand, as if he could see the way her skin was reacting. He could, but it was written in pink all over her face.

He made his way to her door before turning back for only a moment. "Better get downstairs, you've got a big day," he told her, his dark eyes glimmering at her before he turned to walk away.

**/**

**A/N: I had a lot of fun writing this chapter. Tate's disorder will become more prominent later on, but remember, it is only mild at this time. And I actually do a lot of research on disorders and things, so I hope that I can do it justice. Thanks to everyone that reads & reviews! **


End file.
